White House Council on Women and Girls

March 14, 2009

The Obama administration is moving swiftly, more swiftly than on the economy or other issues of social justice, to ensure that the United States is at dismantling the legal and rhetorical nonsense that put its treatment of Guantanamo detainees completely outside the ambit of international law, and in some respects, domestic Constitutional law. This is a positive, commendable development. It is not the end of the Bush era of abuse of citizen and non-citizen rights but it is absolutely a step in the right direction.

I have refrained from commenting on the creation of the Council on Women, because, like the Department of Justice, or any other office of the Executive Branch, the Council is positioned to make positive changes. It is also positioned to do nothing. Only time will tell.